1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a buckling arm robot for machining workpieces by means of laser radiation, wherein the buckling arm robot has at least first through fifth axes and a laser device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A buckling arm robot having the aforementioned features is disclosed, for example, in European patent 0 901 875. This known buckling arm robot is designed such that it can perform the required movements within the reach of its first through fifth axes in all directions of a Cartesian coordinate system. Numbering of these five axes is generally known for buckling arm robots; beginning at the foundation or the ground with the vertically arranged first axis, the axes are numbered in an ascending fashion up to the robot hand. It should be noted that, as is conventional in the field, the term axis does not exclusively denote the pivot or rotational axes but also denotes the robot components that are moved about the axis, for example, the robot arms.
Conventionally, in such known buckling arm robots, the third axis houses the laser device for generating laser beams with which the workpieces are to the machined.
However, this is considered particularly unfavorable, especially in regard to faster working movements, because this laser device significantly contributes to the weight that must be moved together with the third axis. Accordingly, on the one hand, this causes limitations with regard to the laser power because lasers with greater power cannot be employed because of their greater weight, and, on the other hand, the cycling time or the movement of the individual axes, in particular, of the first through third axes cannot be accelerated more because this results, on the one hand, in imprecisions of the movement course and, on the other hand, requires an unreasonably high technical expenditure and costs.